posted at 5:21 pm on March 13, 2014 by Allahpundit

I know most readers are hard at work and not following the news minute to minute so I thought I’d do you a solid by bringing you up to speed on the missing jet. To sum up: Everything is completely farked.

New information, U.S. officials told CNN, indicates the missing airplane could have flown for several hours beyond the last transponder reading.

Malaysian authorities believe they have several “pings” of engine data from the airliner’s service data system, known as ACARS, transmitted to satellites in the four to five hours after the last transponder signal, suggesting the plane is believed to have flown into the Indian Ocean, a senior U.S. official told CNN. That information combined with known radar data and knowledge of fuel range leads officials to believe the plane may have made it to the Indian Ocean.

Wait a sec. It was Malaysian authorities who dismissed the Journal’s story earlier today. Maybe they’ve changed their minds. The jet did fly on! They do have engine data, just like the Journal said!

Corrections & Amplifications
U.S. investigators suspect Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 flew for hours past the time it reached its last confirmed location, based on an analysis of signals sent through the plane’s satellite-communication link designed to automatically transmit the status of onboard systems, according to people familiar with the matter. An earlier version of this article incorrectly said investigators based their suspicions on signals from monitoring systems embedded in the plane’s Rolls-Royce PLC engines and described that process.

So, er, the plane was transmitting data from some of its systems afterward, but not the engine systems specifically as the Journal claimed earlier. Well, okay.

Wait, scratch that. Nope, it wasn’t transmitting anything once it dropped off radar. So says a different source to the AP:

A U.S. official says there were no data transmitted on the status of a missing Malaysia Airlines jet’s engines after contact was lost with the plane…

The official said there was information about the Boeing 777-200′s engines sent via a digital datalink along with other information on the functioning of the plane before contact was lost.

Wait — so it wasn’t transmitting engine data after it dropped out of contact or it wasn’t transmitting any data? We don’t care which data it was precisely. All we’re looking for is a heartbeat here, regardless of which onboard system it’s coming from, to show that the jet was functioning in some way after it went off the communications grid.

Actually, I think ABC’s gotten to the bottom of this. CNN’s second report quoted above is basically right. There’s something onboard (not an engine system but something else) that checks in with satellites hourly. Sounds like they detected four or five satellite “pings” from the plane after it dropped off radar, ergo they assume it flew on for four or five hours afterward.

No, wait. Scratch that too:

It’s not clear what the indication was, but senior administration officials told ABC News the missing Malaysian flight continued to “ping” a satellite on an hourly basis after it lost contact with radar. The Boeing 777 jetliners are equipped with what is called the Airplane Health Management system in which they ping a satellite every hour. The number of pings would indicate how long the plane stayed aloft…

The official initially said there were indications that the plane flew four or five hours after disappearing from radar and that they believe it went into the water. Officials later said the plane likely did not fly four or five hours, but did not specify how long it may have been airborne.

I wonder why they’ve now reconsidered that. Maybe they think … the plane landed in the Indian Ocean intact and kept transmitting for an extra hour or two before it sank? Could it have stayed afloat that long?

Exit question: How long before the “History” Channel turns this into a special about alien abduction?

Breaking on Hot Air

Blowback

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If this aircraft went any real distance into the Indian ocean would it not have been picked up by the air defense systems at Diego Garcia. WE operate a lot of cool stuff from there Bones, B52s, and who knows what else. The place has to have a sophisticated air defense package. If this plane was flying four or five hours west of the Straits, Diego Garcia had to have picked it up. And at its speed and without IFF or transponders it would have attracted interest.

But it is at least POSSIBLE that the plane landed somewhere and continued with it’s engine’s “pinging” afterward for a few hours.

I’m quite curious how it was that the reporting mechanisms of the plane were (or had to be) “manually” turned off. A hijack would explain that, a captain under duress having been demanded to do that, or, a captain gone nuts doing it for deranged or criminal reasons.

Everything about the plane’s disapperance continues to be interpretation, however.

There is no such thing as real news anymore. In this day and age, media justs blast out whatever it comes across with no checking of facts. We’ll know what happened some day, and when we do, we’ll hear the media wonder aloud “How did we get it so wrong?” Then they’ll promise to do better next time. But they won’t.

This whole situation is certainly interesting and I have posited my own theories. But Occam’s Razor is still the rule. They plane most likely experienced some catastrophic failure, went down and we have just not found out where.

…The investigators believe the plane flew for a total of up to five hours, according to these people, based on analysis of signals sent by the Boeing BA -2.04% 777′s satellite-communication link designed to automatically transmit the status of certain onboard systems to the ground.

Throughout the roughly four hours after the jet dropped from civilian radar screens, these people said, the link operated in a kind of standby mode and sought to establish contact with a satellite or satellites. These transmissions did not include data, they said, but the periodic contacts indicate to investigators that the plane was still intact and believed to be flying.

Investigators are still working to fully understand the information, according to one person briefed on the matter. The transmissions, this person said, were comparable to the plane “saying I’m here, I’m ready to send data.”

Investigators are trying to determine, among other things, whether the plane may have landed in an unknown location at some point during the period under scrutiny, these people said…

…A source close to the investigation has said the flight MH370, which was travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 on board, sent a brief signal, or ‘ping’, to satellites in space after it had lost contact with ground control.

The development comes as Malaysian authorities attempted to downplay the theories springing up around the fate of the aircraft, and as the U.S. confirms it could start searching the Indian Ocean for debris – rather than the South China Sea.

The ‘ping’ is not thought to have contained any information about the condition or trajectory of the plane, but merely to confirm that the aircraft existed and that it was possible to contact it.

The system transmits such pings about once an hour, sources said, but it remains unclear how many signals the plane sent after air traffic control lost track of it.

Boeing Co, which made the missing 777 airliner, and Rolls-Royce, which supplied its Trent engines, declined to comment…

If this aircraft went any real distance into the Indian ocean would it not have been picked up by the air defense systems at Diego Garcia. WE operate a lot of cool stuff from there Bones, B52s, and who knows what else. The place has to have a sophisticated air defense package. If this plane was flying four or five hours west of the Straits, Diego Garcia had to have picked it up. And at its speed and without IFF or transponders it would have attracted interest.

xkaydet65 on March 13, 2014 at 5:28 PM

Not really that much.
The island/atoll is owned and controlled by the UK, and we have a Naval Support facility (port) there, and we use the airstrip, and we have a couple other functions like an optical spacetrack site and a satellite control remote tracking station. But really not a whole lot else.

I also read that the time involved in these alleged pings from the plane’s engines would have made a flight to Pakistan possible.

It’s still possible that the plane was ‘stolen’ and taken elsewhere.

Or that it decompressed at it’s high-altitude flight of last report, which would mean no one onboard had any chance to do much of anything except immediately perish (would explain why captain never issued any emergency message/s).

But it’s obvious that CNN and wire services are rather flinging information about as it comes across someone’s desk without investigating what the information actually means.

Lourdes on March 13, 2014 at 5:28 PM

Say it ain’t so.

//

Bitter Clinger on March 13, 2014 at 5:31 PM

Journalists are game players. Their incentive is to be “first reporting” whatever. So they “first report” before or without much investigation into information and what it means. Which is to state the obvious, as you’ve noticed.

This is getting ridiculous. I haven’t been following this story with any kind of real interest, and I’m glad I haven’t. I’ve seen enough of the MSM making fools of themselves by always getting the story wrong.

This is getting ridiculous. I haven’t been following this story with any kind of real interest, and I’m glad I haven’t. I’ve seen enough of the MSM making fools of themselves by always getting the story wrong.

NotCoach on March 13, 2014 at 5:45 PM

Have you seen the story about the big car chase and multiple carjackings through Denver yesterday?
I watched it live on local TV – a video feed from an overhead traffic helicopter the whole way, start to finish. And at least half of the written news reports about it are wrong on many of the details of what happened.
Most of the media is just not capable of getting a story right.

Or that it decompressed at it’s high-altitude flight of last report, which would mean no one onboard had any chance to do much of anything except immediately perish (would explain why captain never issued any emergency message/s).

Lourdes on March 13, 2014 at 5:39 PM

Oh boy, don’t even go in there (the plane was ‘stollen’ theory), the internet is abuzz already with outlandish conspiracy theories, my fave being that the plane was ‘hijacked’ and intentionally ‘directed’ to Diego Garcia by the US for some super duper extraordinary rendition (the truth is that Diego Garcia was indeed the transit point for some of the Bush’s era renditions, but that’s just a different matter) and that the plane is now hidden in some of the large hangars on Diego Garcia :)…not a word though as for what the evil US have done with the passengers :), dumped ‘ em in the water, kept ‘em prisonners of Diego Garcia (that would make my prison of choice though, the island looks beautiful :), also there’s a risk associated with it, DG might tip over, Guam-style :)…with so much human activity on it :)..

The official initially said there were indications that the plane flew four or five hours after disappearing from radar and that they believe it went into the water. Officials later said the plane likely did not fly four or five hours, but did not specify how long it may have been airborne.

.
There are three governments with competing interests who have resources to provide them unpublished data:

Malaysia – from the get-go this government has delayed, obfuscated and lied about what happened and when. They KNOW more than they have yet acknowledged.

China – aside from the Chinese nationals on the plane, post 9/11 China undoubtedly pays CLOSE attention to every plane and persons on each plane flying into their airspace lest they lose face AND one of their shiny new skyscrapers to a copycat attack. China has the best human intelligence sources in that part of the world. given china’s EARLY aggressive comments towards Malaysia, it is likely they know what the Malaysian government knows and probably more. IF China had strong indications the plane had been hijacked – does ANYONE doubt the willingness of the Chinese government to”make the plane disappear” regardless of their citizens on board?

United States – Courtesy of Snowden, we now know the NSA is lsitening in on EVERYTHING they possibly can all the time and EVERYWHERE. We have numerous space based resources which spend the bulk of their time watching this part of the world across the electromagnetic spectrum. Tracking planes by “eavesdropping” on commercial and military radar sites in the region would be relatively straightforward. Different American “sources” are likely to have different access to different parts of the discussions/investigations taking place behinfd the scenes.

Remember when Fukushima first happened and the Japanese government was publicly stating “there has been no significant raidation release”?

Wow. It never occurred to me that a plane would go down in this day and age without anyone having a clue what happened to it. Not with all the pings and transmissions and tracking devices and radar and search and rescue capabilities we have. Not 6 days into the crash. Those poor families, my heart really goes out to them.

1 The 777 is one of the most reliable aircraft ever built. No it isn’t!
2 After an hour the plane made a sudden hook westward. No it didn’t.
3 There is no way to turn a transponder off except deliberately. Yes there is.
4 The plane can be taken over by a hijacker in the plane if he has the correct software. No it can’t.
5 The debris discovered by the Chinese satellite is most likely sections of the plane. No they aren’t.
6 The plane’s engines kept sending out data for four hours after the plane went missing. No they didn’t.
7 The most likely cause of the crash is due to structural failure or sloppy maintenance. no it isn’t.
8 Terrorism is the most likely source of the plane’s demise. No it isn’t.
9 Two Iranians with stolen passports are likely terrorist suspects. No they aren’t.
10 The co-pilot had a history of partying and carousing with blonds from Australia right in the plane’s cockpit during flight. No he doesn’t.

This is getting worse than the reporting during Katrina—-the levees broke on their own, no the levees were detonated by the Bush’s Army corps of engineers, no the superdome was riddled with piles of dead bodies…..wait!

My iPhone app ‘Map My Run’ shows where I am, where I’ve been,even tracks me walking in real time. It knows when I stop and get a drink of water. I paid $4.99 for it. Can they embed it into the plane’s system so that it can’t be turned off? I will donate the $4.99 for the next plane I fly on.

Two U.S. officials tell ABC News the U.S. believes that the shutdown of two communication systems happened separately on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. One source said this indicates the plane did not come out of the sky because of a catastrophic failure.

The data reporting system, they believe, was shut down at 1:07 a.m. The transponder — which transmits location and altitude — shut down at 1:21 a.m.

Also interesting that there were 21 people employed in some capacity in the tech industry on that flight. Twenty of them were people who worked for a single ‘tech firm in Texas’ and one was a man named Philip Wood, described as ‘an executive with IBM who had been working in Beijing for the last two years’. Wood was also the only adult American citizen aboard the flight.

If we’re looking at reasons why some group might possibly have hijacked that air liner I’d think it would be reasonable to take a look at those people employed in the tech industry and find out in exactly what capacity they were employed, what areas of expertise that employment entailed, including what projects they may have been working on before boarding that flight and what new projects they may have been going to work on upon arrival at their intended destinations.

Of course, the same investigation should include every person, passengers and crew, who were aboard that flight.

I’ve been taking a closer look at details like the passenger list and the radar systems that were functioning in the area and the flaws and limitations existing in those systems. It makes for interesting reading. I’m also wondering how it is that the satellite systems various governments brag are so good they can ‘see’ and photograph individual cars and track their route could miss a jet liner with a wing span of 212 feet and a tail section that is over 60 feet tall.

As has been stated previously, someone knows a lot more than they’ve been saying (which might be reassuring). Actually, there’s been a US satellite program that was designed to detect missile launches, and it was putting satellites into orbit since the 70′s. It’s the DSP system. Interestingly, it is also claimed that it can detect the heat signature of aircraft. The satellite constellation has the capability to scan the entire surface of the Earth within a few seconds. One wonders if surveillance was ongoing in that part of the world at the time the aircraft disappeared, and for the hours thereafter. I would certainly be asking those folks about what information they might have.

So it may not be only civilian information that will help solve the mystery. There are a few defense assets that may shed light on where that aircraft went. As to whether it is even available, or can be directly provided, is another question.

It’s within the realm of what is possible, is all, that the plane was stolen — not into conspiratorial speculation but it’s certainly a possibility, given Pakistan and the Uyghurs or whattheheck (Chinese Muslims who are separatists and linked to AQ).

What with the Iranian govt. coming out immediately after the plane’s disappearance, declaring (Iran did) that “the US stole the plane” — it sounded too much like Iran trying to deflect it’s own actions.

The plane could have landed, it could have crashed, it could have been stolen, it could have, it could have…it’s all speculation at this point. Just considering possibilities.

Also interesting that there were 21 people employed in some capacity in the tech industry on that flight. Twenty of them were people who worked for a single ‘tech firm in Texas’

I’d think it would be reasonable to take a look at those people employed in the tech industry and find out in exactly what capacity they were employed, what areas of expertise that employment entailed, including what projects they may have been working on before boarding that flight and what new projects they may have been going to work on upon arrival at their intended destinations.

Freescale RF has launched a major initiative dedicated to serving the RF power needs of the U.S. aerospace and defense (A&D) sector, and has established a team of specialists dedicated to supporting defense customers.

Freescale’s commercial products can meet the requirements of applications such as:

Does anybody know why all those Freescale people were on the plane together. Convention? Teaching the Chinese how to make semi-conductors? This isn’t the first time a team or company has lost a large number of people in a plane crash. They should stop doing that.

This is getting ridiculous. I haven’t been following this story with any kind of real interest, and I’m glad I haven’t. I’ve seen enough of the MSM making fools of themselves by always getting the story wrong.

NotCoach on March 13, 2014 at 5:45 PM

I have. And you are right.

But there are also a lot of basement armchair idiots here spewing crap and preaching conspiracies.

Journalists (and I use the word loosely) in the US would be far more careful in reporting if this story hit closer to home. Say the missing plane was out of LAX instead of on the other side of the world.

We’ve got to remember that there are family members of nearly 300 human beings who don’t have a clue what happened to their loved ones. And they get everything from terrorism, mechanical failure, and hijacking from the media.

I know, I know…it wasn’t an implicit criticism, just that if we go that far into speculative territory the possibilities are endless, the sky’s the limit really…but it is most bizarre indeed, 6 days now and nothing…beats the record of the Air France flight from Rio (I think they found the debris of that one after 5 days or so)…

Does anybody know why all those Freescale people were on the plane together. Convention? Teaching the Chinese how to make semi-conductors? This isn’t the first time a team or company has lost a large number of people in a plane crash. They should stop doing that.

The Freescale employees on MH370 were mostly engineers and other experts working to make the company’s chip facilities in Tianjin, China, and Kuala Lumpur more efficient. They were based in those two locations and traveled back and forth on a regular basis to work on different projects, according to the company.

These idiots are regurgitating outlandish idiotic Hollyweird type plots as if they were plausible. AND taking credit for coming up with them while at the same time claiming it is just informed speculation.

MH370 was hijacked by Uighur Muslims and flown towards China where the Chinese Air Force shot it down. The Chinese don’t want to admit shooting it down. The US doesn’t want to deal with an uproar over it with the Ukrainian situation on the front burner. There was never any western turn of flight MH370 but they don’t want anyone looking in the right place for obvious reasons.